[1] He was born in Maesteg, the town to which his parents had moved from West Wales where his father had worked as a gardener in various country mansions.
This training proved invaluable to him when, in later years, he attended meetings of the South Wales Miners' Federation (SWMF).
In 1919 he was appointed a full-time Federation official at the SWMF office in Maesteg under Vernon Hartshorn, MP and Evan Williams, JP.
When the SWMF office in Maesteg closed in 1934 Thomas was transferred to the Federation Office in Aberdare as Area Secretary and, in addition, fulfilled the duties of the Miners’ Agent, Noah Ablett, who was seriously ill. On the death of Ablett, he was elected Miners’ Agent, a role he fulfilled until 1946.
[1] In 1946, on the elevation to a peerage of George Hall, Thomas was chosen by the Aberdare Divisional Socialist Party to contest the vacant parliamentary seat.